Meryl Streep has suddenly changed her tune on alleged serial pervert Harvey Weinstein, after once calling him "God," she now says he is "disgraceful".

After it emerged that Weinstein had paid financial settlements to at least eight women after they had accused him of sexual assault, Streep released a statement calling the movie producer's conduct "disgraceful".

This contrasts with how Streep addressed Weinstein during a 2012 Golden Globes speech, when she literally referred to him as "God".

"I just want to thank….God – Harvey Weinstein," said Streep as the audience burst out laughing.

"The punisher, Old Testament I guess," added Streep before chuckling to herself.

Streep went to extraordinary lengths in her statement to stress her claim that she didn't know about Weinstein's alleged mass sexual abuse of women stretching back at least three decades.

"One thing can be clarified. Not everybody knew. Harvey supported the work fiercely, was exasperating but respectful with me in our working relationship, and with many others with whom he worked professionally," said Streep.

"I didn't know about these other offenses: I did not know about his financial settlements with actresses and colleagues; I did not know about his having meetings in his hotel room, his bathroom, or other inappropriate, coercive acts. And If everybody knew, I don't believe that all the investigative reporters in the entertainment and the hard news media would have neglected for decades to write about it."

Streep is completely incorrect in her final point – the news media did know about it 13 years ago but the New York Times spiked the story specifically because of pressure from Streep's friends in Hollywood.

As we reported earlier, a survey of nearly 1,400 Oscar acceptance speeches found that Weinstein was thanked more frequently by Hollywood celebs than God.

Meanwhile, a Michael Moore tweet from 2015 in which he stated, "Actually Harvey Weinstein is one of the best people to work with in this town," is looking a little awkward today.